MARQUETTE — The Marquette Area Public Schools Board of Education on Monday unanimously voted to approve its updated MAPS COVID-19 Preparedness and Response Plan.

The approval came the same day the Marquette County Health Department issued a mask order for students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the county. The order requires that children in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade consistently and properly wear a facial mask covering both nose and mouth while inside any enclosed building or structure of the institution.

Also, regardless of vaccination status, all persons providing service in an educational institution or setting to any child in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade must properly and consistently wear a facial mask while inside any enclosed building, vehicle or structure.

Students under age 12 currently are ineligible to receive a vaccine.

MCHD noted that Marquette County is currently at a “high” COVID-19 transmission level according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The mask order will be effective beginning Thursday and will remain in effect until community transmission for Marquette County is categorized as “moderate” or “low” — according to CDC metrics — for at least 14 consecutive days, or until further notice from Marquette County Health Officer Gerald Messana.

Interim Superintendent Zack Sedgwick said at the meeting that the state of Michigan had 17 COVID cases per 100,000 people on Aug. 23 and 30 per 100,000 as of Monday.

MAPS’ COVID dashboard, available at mapsnet.org, showed the district had 21 cumulative student cases and one employee case between Aug. 31 and Monday.

Sedgwick said the district’s back-to-school committee met on Aug. 26 to discuss changes the board should recommend to the COVID response plan.

At Monday’s board meeting, Sedgwick discussed three main modifications to the plan that he recommended to the board, which ultimately OK’d them.

The plan originally did not include the district having a virtual option for K-5 students. MAPS now has a K-5 Virtual Academy, he said, with about 32 students enrolled.

“It’s up and running, and so far, so good,” Sedgwick said.

Another modification, which already had been publicly announced, is a mask requirement for school transportation, which he pointed out has been implemented with no issues.

The other change he recommended was the district following MCHD’s mask order for students and staff in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade. Masks remain “strongly recommended” for grades seven though 12 in MAPS schools.

Reactions mixed

Local residents shared their sometimes widely differing opinions during the public comment period.

Valerie Olson of Marquette came out against the mask order, stressing that children have “statistically a zero chance” of dying from COVID and no study has conclusively shown the effectiveness of masks.

“Whatever you choose to do must be based on science,” Olson said.

She expressed concern over carbon dioxide levels that build up when a mask is worn, noting there have been no safety studies performed that have measured the gases inside the masks of children.

“I have done this myself with masks that I’ve worn, and within three minutes, CO2 levels are double danger zone,” Olson said.

Dion Krysmalski of Marquette also indicated he is against the mask mandate.

“Make no mistake. This is about one thing: vaccinating our children,” Krysmalski said.

He said he believes vaccines and masks don’t work.

“If you have a healthy child in our school system, the worst thing you can do is mask them,” Krysmalski said. “Honestly, let them get it, because if we allow that, we would actually develop so-called herd immunity and we would have already been through this garbage.”

Brian Krill, a teacher at Marquette Alternative High School, said attendance currently is down at the school because of three active cases and students in quarantine.

“We survived last year with masks,” Krill said. “It was not easy. It was not fun by any means.”

However, he noted most of the students wore masks without question, and they did not spread the virus.

Krill wants the board to extend the COVID mask policy to K-12 students, as does retired Marquette Senior High School teacher Fred Cole, who also spoke at the meeting.

Cole said students were OK with wearing masks.

“In my experience, they work,” he said.

Cole addressed some speakers’ comments about civil rights.

“I taught government for 30 years, and none of our rights are absolute,” Cole said.

Rights, he noted, have to be balanced with responsibilities.

“Individual rights always have to balance with the common good, and I believe that common good would be for us to wear masks, and it would be helpful,” Cole said. “Rights don’t exist in a vacuum.”

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.